Had maxxis load E's mounted and balanced to replace my factory D's. TT weighs about 9500 loaded but wanted peace of mind. Drove home and ride was bouncy and I could feel it in the drivers seat. Called back and they said they balanced out fine, no tire flat spots and rims were all good. They aired them up to 80 psi per my request. Told them I was going to bring back to have them re look at the balancing.They called back and said that I should air down to 65 psi to soften ride since that is what I had before. I said if I did that I would lose the benefit of having an E tire. Is that even correct to say. They said it will be a sacrifice of a stiffer ride at 80 and more weight carrying capacity on the tire of a softer ride and not getting the full benefit of the E's capacity.I don't know if I should believe them so I am asking you folks. Please advise what I should do. I don't mind going to 72-75 psi but at 65 I could have stuck with a D tire. Thanks

At 65psi the "E"s can carry the same load as the "D"s. What benefit do you think the "E"s at 80psi will give you?

On my tt i ran 65lbs in my Maxxis E rated and it rode fine.

nevadanick wrote:On my tt i ran 65lbs in my Maxxis E rated and it rode fine. My question then is what benefit is an E over a D if you do this? Don't you effectively give up all the extra load carrying capacity and in essence just have a Load D or is the E still a better and stronger tire at 65 than a D at 65. tks

Since my current tires already exceeds my axle capacity, why should I buy tires that have even more more capacity then the axles that support them?Yet people do this all the time.

Cecilt wrote:nevadanick wrote:On my tt i ran 65lbs in my Maxxis E rated and it rode fine. My question then is what benefit is an E over a D if you do this? Don't you effectively give up all the extra load carrying capacity and in essence just have a Load D or is the E still a better and stronger tire at 65 than a D at 65. tksBoth.The extra capacity can come in handy. I recently spun a bearing, and lost a wheel. The 3 tires remaining got us home without a hitch. They were @ 80. You had them balanced. Did you make them use a lug plate? They hate doing it. I watch them to make sure they do it. More than once I caught them using the pilot hole instead of the lug plate as I requested.The reason this is important is that most TT rims are lug centric. Not pilot centric. This means that the lugnuts do the centering, not the pilot hole which is not perfectly centered.If they use the pilot hole, then it may well make the balance worse.

Maxxis Load D To E - Bouncy Ride | Good Sam Community

52 Replies

Cecilt
Explorer
Jul 06, 2015
OP here. The trip was fine and no bounce that appeared any different than before. Maybe a little but nothing to cause concern. My comfort level on riding on Maxxis Load E's was why I made the change. I never thought during the trip if one of my tires was going to shred and ruin my weekend or vacation.
LScamper
Explorer
Jul 04, 2015
Maxxis tire chart:

clicky

Ran Maxxis ST205/75R15 at 50 lbs (1820 lbs per tire) for many years. Had several tread separations but just replaced with the same type tire. Gave up on Maxxis and tried Green Ball from Direct Tire. After about one year one of them blew out and another had a large bubble.

I'm sure my trailer is over weight but have not measured it.

Called Maxxis engineer to talk about updating tires. He suggested going to ST225/75R15 at 55 lbs (2270lbs per tire), a 25% increase in capacity and should ride about the same. Could go to 65 lbs (2540 lbs per tire) if I want to. Had to make sure there was enough clearance for the 1.2 inch diameter larger tire and get new rims. Have not towed enough to see if these tires are more reliable.

I asked about truck tires. The only thing he said was that after all the problems with car tires several years ago that they now have a much larger built in safety factor than they had back then.
Crabbypatty
Explorer
Jul 04, 2015
I think the issue is more that under inflation can lead to excess heat and a blow out. I always keep my tires at the recommended inflation on the tire side wall. Using less air to soften the ride would definitely make me nervous. I would look into a suspension mod such as the air bag between the two sets of wheels.
rbpru
Explorer II
Jul 03, 2015
The LT vs. ST debate will go on forever but the hard fact is; there is no data to show that the failure rate per million is any better with one than the other.

It is a fact that the tire industry has designed and in most cases recommends ST tires for trailer use.

The tire manufacturers do not give two hoots whether they sell you an ST or an LT; they make money on both. They do care about their tire design.

ST vs. LT is pure rhetoric and opinion. I have never seen it backed up with any hard facts; and apparently neither has the DOT. I course the DOT could also be part of the great ST /LT conspiracy.
Huntindog
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
RinconVTR wrote:
Huntindog wrote:
RinconVTR wrote:

And people who think they can buy a "good quality"/"better tire" that is invulnerable to curb, pot holes and general damage is living a fairy tale. There is no such tire.

Of course no tire is industructable... But ST tires they should not fail at anywhere near the rate they do. .

Please Huntingdog....share with us the actual failure rate of ST tires.

You know that you don't know. So stop making blanket statements with absolutely no knowledge of fact or even educated guess.

I can say with certainty what my failure rate was when I drank the ST tire koolaid...(I was once a believer of all of the ST propaganda) I had many sets of STs, as I continually upgraded them in size and load rating, believing that the failures were not the tires fault.. It was no use. Not one set of my many ST tires made it to their second birthday...

And for the record, I too used to be a huge proponent of ST tires. You can look up my posts from years back to see for your self.

I may be a little dense at times, but eventually I learn.
My TT tire problems ended in 2006 when I made the jump up to LTs.

I now replace my TT tires due to age! What a concept.
MM49
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
Huntindog wrote:
MM49 wrote:
Huntindog wrote:
MM49 wrote:
goducks10 wrote:
What's the difference between ply's and belts? The D is 8 ply and the E is 10 ply. Surely 10 ply's are better than 8.
The ply or belt is a strength rating. It doesn't relate to a physical count of belts. Again the D and E tires are virtually identical in appearance and weight.
MM49
It's spliting hairs.
Years ago, an 8 ply tire had 8 plies, and a 10 ply had 10.

Now they go by ratings an 8 ply rated tire won't have 8 plies in it, but will have the strength of an old 8 ply tire.
What hasn't changed is that a 10 ply rated tire WILL be stronger than a 8 ply rated tire.
Your really good at making overly broad statments. You don't know the strength of the old 8 ply tire or the new one.Neither do you. You understand my point just fine. You are still just trying to split hairs for some reason. It wasn't that long ago that there wasn't even tire ratings as we know. During that time all tires were ST style construction. There is a need for ST tires in trailer usage with all their trade offs.
MM49

Unfortunatly tire construction is splitting hairs. A differnce in cord diameter or a rubber liner at cord intersectoin does make difernce. There will be trade offs with each method. My advice would be go with a proven brand like Maxxis that has made all those decisions and tested and validated the results. You will benifet from using a tire that is designed for trailer use application, yes there is a differnce.
MM49
RinconVTR
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
Huntindog wrote:
RinconVTR wrote:

And people who think they can buy a "good quality"/"better tire" that is invulnerable to curb, pot holes and general damage is living a fairy tale. There is no such tire.

Of course no tire is industructable... But ST tires they should not fail at anywhere near the rate they do. .

Please Huntingdog....share with us the actual failure rate of ST tires.

You know that you don't know. So stop making blanket statements with absolutely no knowledge of fact or even educated guess.
Huntindog
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
MM49 wrote:
Huntindog wrote:
MM49 wrote:
goducks10 wrote:
What's the difference between ply's and belts? The D is 8 ply and the E is 10 ply. Surely 10 ply's are better than 8.
The ply or belt is a strength rating. It doesn't relate to a physical count of belts. Again the D and E tires are virtually identical in appearance and weight.
MM49
It's spliting hairs.
Years ago, an 8 ply tire had 8 plies, and a 10 ply had 10.

Now they go by ratings an 8 ply rated tire won't have 8 plies in it, but will have the strength of an old 8 ply tire.
What hasn't changed is that a 10 ply rated tire WILL be stronger than a 8 ply rated tire.
Your really good at making overly broad statments. You don't know the strength of the old 8 ply tire or the new one.Neither do you. You understand my point just fine. You are still just trying to split hairs for some reason. It wasn't that long ago that there wasn't even tire ratings as we know. During that time all tires were ST style construction. There is a need for ST tires in trailer usage with all their trade offs.
MM49
jspringator
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
The PSI rating of the wheel is indicated by a sticker on the inside of the wheel. IIRC, the stock wheels on my Jayco Eagle were rated at 65 PSI. Have you checked this on your wheel? This very may well answer your question.

Additionally, I remember one of the major tire manufacturers published a chart with the weight rating of a particular tire at different PSI's. Weigh the trailer by axle, divide by 2, add a 15% margin of error, and the chart should give you a PSI. Too much air can make the trailer ride so harshly it could damage it.

I've got 2 Goodyear LT tires (Cargo, I think) that fit a Sprinter van on my front axle. 2 for the rear go on next year.
MM49
Explorer
Jul 03, 2015
Huntindog wrote:
MM49 wrote:
goducks10 wrote:
What's the difference between ply's and belts? The D is 8 ply and the E is 10 ply. Surely 10 ply's are better than 8.
The ply or belt is a strength rating. It doesn't relate to a physical count of belts. Again the D and E tires are virtually identical in appearance and weight.
MM49
It's spliting hairs.
Years ago, an 8 ply tire had 8 plies, and a 10 ply had 10.

Now they go by ratings an 8 ply rated tire won't have 8 plies in it, but will have the strength of an old 8 ply tire.
What hasn't changed is that a 10 ply rated tire WILL be stronger than a 8 ply rated tire.
Your really good at making overly broad statments. You don't know the strength of the old 8 ply tire or the new one. It wasn't that long ago that there wasn't even tire ratings as we know. During that time all tires were ST style construction. There is a need for ST tires in trailer usage with all their trade offs.
MM49